January 2020 Meeting Notes

BAS Minutes Jan. 6, 2020

18 people in attendance, including a college student visitor, and Shelly from Wayside School

Minutes of previous meeting as posted online by Denise Gregg were approved

Thanks so much to Lynne for taking tonight’s meeting notes!

Financials:

Treasurer’s Report - Evan Zorn

Beginning balance Dec. 1, 2019: $3208.66

Dues paid in December: $102.00

No expenses in December

Ending balance Dec. 31, 2019: $3310.66

Committee Reports:

Astronomical League news and activities - Kristi Herrman--

On Dec. 26, 2019, Kristi submitted the club's quarterly membership roster to the Astronomical League for the first quarter of 2020. The roster she submitted showed 51 memberships, which reflects the most recent info she's received from Evan. His last membership update was on Nov. 21, 2019. (If there are any non-renewals/dues not paid, those have not been submitted to Kristi yet, but she thinks we usually give folks a few months after November 1 to get caught up on their dues payments.)

Kristi hasn't received any other news from the Astronomical League for this month.

Youth club (BYA) news - Rick Bryant--No update; he was not present this evening

Update on library display from Abby: The display case will feature BAS/BYA members' pictures, individually and on banners; astronomical equipment; and a youth display of art projects. The next library display committee meeting will take place Saturday, Jan. 11 at 10 a.m. at Eggbert's in the Starbucks area. Abby will send out an email reminder of the meeting this week. More discussion of this will take place tonight at Braum’s after the meeting.

Old Business:

Dues for 2020 are due! See/pay Evan Zorn:

Regular membership $25

Student membership $10

Family membership $30 for 2, $40 for 3 or more

New Business:

BAS Board meeting--Craig is trying to schedule one for next week on Jan. 14.

Craig is working on mugs featuring star images we have taken, along with our Club logo. These could possibly be presented to speakers, used as Club gifts, etc.

Astronomy News and Events:

Astronomy News--Abby: She didn't present on this specifically as she did the main presentation this evening! She did remind the Club, though, that she is going to college soon and a volunteer will be needed to prepare and present an update every month on star and sky news. Abby will help and tutor whomever volunteers to do this; she would like for someone to volunteer to do this soon. Putting together the quality of astronomy news that she presents to us each month takes a lot of work. For every minute of her astronomy news that she presents, figure that she has put in an hour of work into preparing it; that comes to about 10-15 hours a month. Abby reads volumes and volumes of articles on not only astronomy but space exploration, rocketry and astrophysics, and then selects the best to present to us each month.

Craig mentioned that the star Betelgeuse may be becoming a supernova!

Member photos: Craig showed a number of Rick Buck's images taken in December 2019.

Upcoming astronomical events:

John Land from the Tulsa Astronomy Club is doing a "Telescope 101" presentation for people who got telescopes over the holidays. It will be on January 11 from 10:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. at the Tulsa Air and Space Museum, located north of the Tulsa airport. Go to http://www.astrotulsa.com or http://www.tulsamuseum.org/events to register. Sign-up is required for a 30-minute time slot, and the event includes free planetarium showings up to a time limit; check the website for details.

The Club would like to do a planetarium show sometime between March and May this year.

Craig announced an Apollo 13 50th anniversary celebration at the Cosmosphere on April 4. Details are still tentative, but it is anticipated that Jim Lovell and Fred Haise will attend.

John Blaesi reported that we should take note of what the Arkansas Natural Sky Association is doing. They are working with the Arkansas State Park and Arkansas Public Libraries. They are building an observatory in Lowell (in NW Arkansas), to be completed in about 4 years, to hold a large Sproul telescope from Swarthmore that they are acquiring.

Club Events:

Report on New Year’s Day midnight hike and stars at Osage Hills State Park—Bob Young, John Grismore and Craig Brockmeier came, with two telescopes. They set up their equipment at 10:30 pm and 75 hikers showed up shortly after midnight! They showed the hikers the Milky Way, double clusters, the Andromeda galaxy and the Pleiades. Thanks to Nick Conner and John Blaesi for setting this up!

The possibility was raised of doing this again on the summer solstice on June 20.

Upcoming Star Parties--Rick Buck:

Star Party for Dewey School – TBA

Star Party for St. Luke’s School – TBA

Star Party for Wayside School – Feb. 15. Shelly and Rick Buck discussed having a youth evening program on Feb. 15 from 7-9 pm. Parents would be required to attend.

Tonight’s Program: "Beacons of an Invisible Universe: Quasars and Pulsars" by Abby

Abby gave a short history of the development of radio astronomy, the first discoveries, and she talked about the nature and anatomy of quasars and pulsars. About half a century ago, radio telescopes revealed two kinds of objects not detected before with optical telescopes. "Quasars" -short for quasi stellar radio objects - were found to be monster black holes in very distant galaxies. Some of the material spiraling toward the black hole is superheated and spewed out from the black hole's poles. The gas generates huge amounts of energy, including radio waves. "Pulsars" - literally means pulsating star- turned out to be the last stages of massive stars that had exploded. The leftover core of such a star, which is still more massive than our entire Sun, is crunched by gravity into a rapidly spinning ball only a few miles across. Beams of energy sweep out from the poles of the spinning pulsar, somewhat like a lighthouse beacon. Approximately 2000 have been found to date, all within our own galaxy.

Next meeting - February 3, program by Rick Buck

Need volunteers to present at upcoming meetings – see Bob Young

Ice cream at Braum’s!!!